Centre releases funds to States and UTs to fight COVID-19

The Central government has released 50 per cent of the funds till date to ensure implementation of key activities at the State and District levels to prepare the public healthcare systems in response to the evolving pandemic situation.

New Delhi:Toboost India’s fight against Covid19 pandemic, the Centre on Fridayreleased another 35 percent of funds from the “India COVID-19 Emergency Response & Health System Preparedness Package: Phase-II” (ECRP-II package) to the States and Union Territories.

With this, the central government released 50 percent of the funds till date to ensure implementation of key activities at the State and District levels to prepare the public healthcare systems in response to the evolving pandemic situation.

It may be mentioned here that in view of the second wave, its spread into rural, peri-urban and tribal areas and the evolving pandemic situation, the Union Cabinet has recently approved the ECRP-II package amounting Rs. 23,123 crores.

This scheme is to be implemented from July 1, 2021 to March 31, 2022.

This scheme is a centrally sponsored scheme with some central sector components. It aims to accelerate health system preparedness for immediate responsiveness for early prevention, detection and management, with a focus on health infrastructure development including for Paediatric Care and with measurable outcomes.

Under the Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) components of the ECRP-II, States and UTs have been supported by way of approvals for Emergency COVID Response Plans (ECRP) to the tune of Rs 14,744.99 crore.

Significantly, the proposals for the infrastructure to be created have also been received from the states.

The CSS component of ECRP-II package will support States and UTs for creation of 827 Paediatric units in the districts which will result in additional creation of 19,030 Oxygen supported beds and 10,440 ICU/HDU beds.

It will also establish 42 Paediatric Centres of Excellence (Paediatric CoE), at least one in each State and UT, (either in Medical Colleges, State Govt. Hospitals or Central Hospitals such as AIIMS, INIs, etc) for providing Tele-ICU services, mentoring and technical hand-holding to the District Paediatric units.

The package will also augment 23,056 ICU beds in the public healthcare system out of which 20% will be Paediatric ICU beds.

It will also help to meet the requirement of essential medicines for COVID-19 management, including creation of buffer stock among other things.

Under the scheme, approvals have been accorded to 740 districts in the States and UTs for providing essential drugs including buffer stock up to the cost of Rs 1 crore per district.

ECRP-I for Rs 15,000 crore (USD 2 billion) has been released to all states and UTs in April this year to prevent, detect and respond to the threat posed by COVID-19.